A hair dryer usually includes a means for moving warm air at a high volumetric flow rate towards a prescribed area. Thus, most proposed designs for hair dryers include a motor-driven fan that is powered by utility power via a plug-in cord.
However, due to increased mobility, many people require a portable hair dryer for use in traveling or the like. Therefore, there have been several designs for so-called portable hair dryers for use in traveling. However, such hair dryers, while characterized as being "portable" still require a source of utility power to operate the motor-driven fan. Thus, in such cases, "portable" only means "small". True portability requires the hair dryer to include an independent source of power.
Therefore, there is a need for a portable hair dryer assembly that can operated independent of and without the need of utility power.
A still further drawback of many hair dryers is their susceptibility to clogging due to hair jamming the motor. Many otherwise good hair dryers have been discarded because the motor is malfunctioning, and such motor malfunctioning is simply caused by loose hair picked up by the motor intake system while the dryer assembly is being used. The small "portable" hair dryers are more susceptible to such jamming since the motor units of these hair dryers are small and often difficult to reach so they cannot be efficiently and economically cleaned even if the problem is recognized.
A still further problem with portable hair dryers is caused by their compactness. To be compact, the air exhaust opening is often small, thereby requiring the entire hair dryer assembly to be moved continuously during a drying operation. Such movement further exposes the dryer to picking up loose hair.
Accordingly, there is a need for a portable hair dryer which is not susceptible to having loose hair clog the motor unit and which can be efficiently operated with a minimum amount of movement of the overall assembly.